Maureen Shuh

Associate Professor
Office Monroe Hall, Room 312, Box 025
E-mail: mshuh@loyno.edu
Phone: 504-865-3285
Home Page: http://www.loyno.edu/~mshuh/
Curriculum Vitae

Personal sketch

Maureen Shuh joined the Department of Biological Sciences in 2000. She received her Ph.D. in Cell & Molecular Biology, Brown University, 1996.

Teaching and learning

Dr. Shuh has taught the following courses: (for majors) Cells and Heredity (introductory biology), Molecular Genetics (lecture and lab), Virology, Immunology, (for non-majors) Microbes: Friend or Foe?

Shuh's philosophy in teaching and learning is rooted in research and based on providing hands-on experiences for students with a strong focus on writing, oral presentations, and independent thought and analysis. By providing diverse approaches to student learning, Shuh engages students to explore current issues in genetics, virology, and immunology, and to utilize the skills of independent thought and analysis beyond the classroom. Examples of classroom projects are:

• Molecular genetics lab students start from scratch for individual recombinant DNA projects. Students are making brand new DNA. This is REAL science! Final product—new recombinant DNA and manuscript-length report (publication-ready format).
• Molecular, cellular, and biochemistry students are exposed to the the most current technology and events including stem cell biology, cloning, gene therapy, etc.
• Virology—oral presentations on student’s favorite virus (yes, lots of gross pictures).

Students work closely with Writing Across the Curriculum and the Monroe Library in developing their writing skills and documentation of electronic research references.

Research interests

Her major field of interest is the mechanism of cancer development and the biology of the human retrovirus HTLV-I using molecular and biochemical approaches. Her current research interests include identifying the mechanism of T cell transformation as mediated by the HTLV-I oncogenic protein Tax, especially the modification of cellular transcriptional activity. 

Publications

Shuh, M., and Douglas C. Hixson. 2005. V(D)J recombination of chromosomally integrated, wild-type deletional and inversional substrates occurs at similar frequencies with no preference for orientation. Immunology Letters 97(1):69-80.

Maureen Shuh and David Derse 2000.  Ternary complex factors and cofactors are essential for HTLV-I Tax transactivation of the serum    response element.  Journal  of Virology. 74(23):11394-11397.

David Derse, Maureen Shuh, Shawn Hill 1999.  Examining HTLV-I gene function and expression with molecularly cloned proviruses.  In Molecular Pathogenesis of HTLV-I:  A Current Perspective.  Edited by O. John Semmes and Marie-Louise Hamarskjold; ABI Professional Publications:  Arlington, Virginia.  Pages.123-130.

Shawn A. Hill, Maureen Shuh, and David Derse 1999.  Comparisons of defective HTLV-I proviruses predict the mode of origin and coding potential of internally deleted genomes.  Virology. 263:273-281.

Maureen Shuh, Shawn A. Hill, and David Derse 1999.  Defective and wild-type   HTLV-I proviruses:  Characterization of gene products and potential trans-  interactions between proviruses. Virology.  262:442-451.